Tiger’s Wells Fargo press conference: Thursday
Q: What is it like to play when you know it’s at such a slow pace?
TIGER WOODS: It’s everything you think it would be. There’s no wind out there, and the golf course wasn’t playing that hard. You saw a lot of low scores out there, but for some reason it takes the players — really slow on the front nine.
Q: What are some of the challenges for you after three weeks off?
TIGER WOODS: Well, getting off to a positive start, and I bogeyed the first hole right out of the gate, so there goes that idea. You try and build, try and find a rhythm in the round. It’s a little bit different than being at home, obviously, and I found it probably by the third hole. I made a nice putt there at the second, and once I was in a rhythm I feel much like (indiscernible.)
Q: In team sports we see adjustments made throughout a game. In golf what kind of adjustments do you make within a round?
TIGER WOODS: You’re always making adjustments, shot to shot, absolutely. Your feels change day-to-day, wind changes, obviously all of our different undulations and lies that we play, you make adjustments all the time. That’s the beauty of it. You’re always constantly adjusting.
Q: I thought you got a little rhythm going on the back nine.
TIGER WOODS: I did play good on the back. I gave up too many shots on the front nine, though. I didn’t get up-and-down a couple times and made a couple bad shots on the wrong side of the hole. Even on 10, you can’t miss it right, and I missed it right.
I’ve just got to play the par-5s better and obviously miss them on the correct sides. I just didn’t do that today.
Q: Are you looking forward to tomorrow?
TIGER WOODS: Absolutely. We’ve got some fresh greens — it was pretty interesting today. The greens looked quick but they putt slow, so that was — we were talking about that all day. Obviously Webb didn’t have a problem.
Q: I wanted to ask you about that because you and Geoff and Webb were having a great time out there today.
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, we’re all friends. I’ve played against Geoff for a very long time, and Webby I’ve gotten to know because of the Presidents Cup. We had a good time out there, and Webby put up an unbelievable score, a hole-out, a big old bomb there at 12. It was a good day.
Q: A little bit of a rough start there, but you got it back and got a decent score posted.
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I made too many mistakes on the front nine. I didn’t take care of the par-5s. I had an easy up-and-in at 8, which I messed up there. 10, I short sided myself, and three or four shots and I’m right there. I’ve got to obviously not make those little mistakes like that tomorrow.
Q: Were you a little rusty?
TIGER WOODS: You know, some of it —
Q: The chip on No.1?
TIGER WOODS: That was a little bit of grainy. I didn’t want to hit it past the hole and run it back down that hill. Obviously I flubbed it.
Q: Given those things that happened, are you okay with 1-under?
TIGER WOODS: It’s still within reach, obviously. We’ve got a long way to go, and we’ve got some rain coming probably on the weekend, so we’re going to have to go get it. The scores are going to be probably a lot lower. The difficult thing about today, I thought — we were talking about this in the group is that the greens looked fast but they putt slow. A very interesting combo. But Webby did a good job making 70-footers. He only had three putts over 30 feet today, so he did all right.
Q: Compare today to the Masters, the struggles there. How are you three weeks later, four weeks later?
TIGER WOODS: I was able to make the in-game adjustments. That’s one of the good things about today is I made those adjustments on the back nine and hit the ball much better.
The front nine I just missed the ball in the wrong spots, and a couple easy up-and-ins. It’s something that I just need to take care of tomorrow.
Q: That was more frustrating than this, the way you played there?
TIGER WOODS: Oh, absolutely. It’s a major championship. I wasn’t anywhere near the lead.
Q: Do you feel like you did a better job bringing it to the course today?
TIGER WOODS: Well, it’s nice to know what to do. It’s one of the things that I was still fighting it a couple times out there where I backed off a shot, reset, and hit some good shots, which was good. Perfect example of that at 17, I just didn’t quite feel right with what my thought was going into the ball and how I was going to get over it, and I backed off and hit a good one.
Q: Talk a little bit about how Webb played.
TIGER WOODS: I think he holed out once, and he made an unbelievable par over at 4 today. He sniped it off the tee there, hit it in the bunker and then hit just an unreal shot. He had a little bit of a gap, played it through the tree but on the right side of the limb, which was a pretty gutsy shot, pulled it off and then made the putt.
He just was grinding out there. Granted, he putted well, but still, he missed the ball in all the correct spots, which was key. Even him going for the green at 10, it was marginal if he could get there or not, but he missed it in the left spot and had an easy pitch.
Q: Is that the first time you’ve used that 2-iron in competition?
TIGER WOODS: No, I used it at Bay Hill.
Q: When did you go to a graphite shaft in that?
TIGER WOODS: Last year in Australia. It’s not graphite, it’s still steel, it’s just lightweight.
Q: Having the cavity back, what does that do for you that the blade didn’t?
TIGER WOODS: Well, it comes off faster. My ball speed is right around 150 with that thing, so it comes off pretty good.
